Monday, 26 October 2009

I have never been one for thinking about war, I try to be a big ostrich because I just cannot bear all the awful negative emotions that arise from thought of so much pain and loss. I think maybe I always considered the wearing of red poppy on remembrance sunday to be a too painful reminder of that. However, I am thankful that (I hope) my children will never be in a position where they are not given a choice about whether or not they join the armed forces and end up in a controversial war. I realise that choice has been earned for them by people, our own ancestors, who weren't given a choice but fought their asses off anyway and died somewhere awful. My Great Grandmother recieved the 'Dead Man's Penny' instead of her husband after World War 1, and my young Great Grandfather and his baby son (my lovely Grandad Bob) never met.

I never knew this about him until I researched my family tree and my Dad produced the bronze plaque for me to see. Also called 'the Widow's Penny' it is so heavy and cold that I can't imagine the grief my Great Grandmother must have felt as she held it.

Recently, a few of my Poppy Corsages have been bought by people who wanted to wear them specifically for the run up to Poppy Day and Remembrance Sunday itself on the 8th November. Although I never thought my brooches would be worn for this reason, now I know they are I will always associate them with remembrance and promise to be an ostrich no more!

I figure that since my customers would normally have bought a British Legion poppy pin that their donation will go unmade unless I make it on their behalf when they buy mine instead. That being so I have decided to make two brand new versions of the Poppy corsage, one large and one small and make a donation for each one sold from our online shops. The larger corsages are £8.50 and £1 donation will be made and from the £5 smaller pins I will donate 50p each.You can make an independant donation by buying a poppy from a British Legion Seller or visit their website for other ways to give. http://www.poppy.org.uk/Paula x

Friday, 23 October 2009

We are in no less than THREE treasuries today! All the collections are arranged around colour, magenta, purple and turquoise blue and all feature one of my pansies. Rather than do the usual and post images of the treshes here and thank the people who listed them, I'm just going to post our flickr link so you can see the screen caps. Instead I'd like to feature the fabulous Etsians who chose us for their collections today!

Since we are well and truly into Autumn now and it's a wet day here: shoes, wheels and doormats all have soggy leaves stuck to them. I reckon I need to remind myself of the more glorious side to the season, especially since I am trying to get inspired to finish my own Autumn collection before the winter is upon us!

First up is 우리 Handmade Craft Collections, three cousins from Kuala Lumpur who make the most stunning collection of nature inspired pieces that harmonise beautifully with one another. It was really hard to choose a piece to feature here as their entire shop fits the bill for my post today, but I chose this :

This is one of the Fall in to Autumn pieces from the ladies' Autumn 2009 collection and lots more pieces in this range can be found in their shop including some stunning oak leaf cuff bracelets adorned with bugle beads - gorgeous!

우리 (Uri) means 'Mine' in Korean but there is no possessiveness here, a proportion of the profits from all the ranges in this shop are give to animal charities. This is a subject particularly close to our hearts at the moment as Lesley has been actively and bravely involved in Lush's campaign to have the ban on illegal foxhunting enforced in the UK. (We may well blog about this another time when we've calmed down about it!).

The treasury 'Blue' by the very talented and acclaimed UK bead artist Lynn Davy of Nemeton on Etsy, included my turquoise pansy corsage that, until I saw it in the collection I was going to put into hibernation until next Spring - maybe I won't now! The featured items on the main page of the Nemeton shop right now, also reflect the same deep turquoise blues that the treasury does. In her profile Lynn says that her inspiration comes from the coast and countryside near her home of Bournemouth in the UK and the rockpools she says she likes to stare into are certainly evident here.

So the STUNNING autumnal piece I have chosen from Nemeton is this amazing Forest Collar. The composition of all the garden collars in this collection is just perfect and they are so sumptuous I think if I owned one I would languish around in a diaphanous gown all day gazing at my lovely necklace instead of a rockpool!

Finally, another swell of UK talent from Lorrie Whittington of Illusio Creative. Although Lorrie produces her vibrant art in a variety of mediums (And the 'inspired by the sea' textiles series are my faves!) it is this version of her 'Falling Leaves' design that hit the spot for my Autumn mood today. The colours, the lines, the movement - beautiful :)

Lorrie also donates 15% of the sales from all her Illusio shops to the NSPCC.